Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (July 2, 2024)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on July 2, 2024. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present. Defendant’s actions during attempted carjacking did not represent separate restraint or confinement to support kidnapping conviction. State v. Andrews, COA23-675, ___ N.C. App. ___ (July 2, 2024). For more in-depth discussion of this case, see this post by Prof. Joseph Hyde. In this Davie County case, defendant appealed his first-degree kidnapping with a firearm conviction, arguing error in denying his motion to dismiss for insufficient evidence. The Court of Appeals agreed, reversing defendant’s conviction. In September of 2019, defendant was assisting an acquaintance in the search for her mother’s stolen car. The search resulted in defendant aggressively driving a van in pursuit of the victim, who was driving a similar vehicle to the stolen car. After a high-speed pursuit and several shots fired in the direction of the victim’s vehicle, the victim escaped and called law enforcement. Defendant came to trial for three offenses related to the pursuit, attempted robbery with a firearm, attempted discharge of a firearm into an occupied vehicle, and first-degree kidnapping with a firearm. The jury found him guilty of all three offenses. Defendant argued in his motion to dismiss that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of confinement or restraint to support the kidnapping charge. Agreeing with defendant, the Court of Appeals [...]